Final Five round of the City Pulse/Fox 47 News Top of the Town contest begins now!

Out of a melee of hundreds of nominees, a crop of elite Lansing-area warriors has advanced to the Final Five round of the 2016 City Pulse/Fox 47 News Top of the Town Awards.

Over 9,000 participants voted in the first round, nominating hundreds of Greater Lansing’s best people, places and businesses. From those hundreds of nominations, we pulled out the top five vote-getters in every category. These nominees fight it out in the Final Five round, which starts today and ends at 11:59 p.m. May 17. Winners are announced in the June 1 issue of City Pulse!

And we’ll celebrate those winners at the first-ever City Pulse River Rock Concert at Adado Riverfront Park, June 10 and 11. The June 11 lineup includes our Top of the Town Party, with music by local bands and special food offerings from over a dozen local restaurants. June 10 will feature the Verve Pipe playing the platinum-selling “Villains” album live for the first time ever. Local ‘80s cover band Triple Lindy will open the show. (See page 10 for more on Triple Lindy.)

There are seven main categories and 122 subcategories. You must vote in at least 15 subcategories to have your votes count. You may spread your 15 votes through multiple main categories. You can only submit one entry per email address, so don’t hit that “finalize” button until you’ve voted in all the categories you wanted to.

So check out the Final Five competitors in this issue, then head over to lansingcitypulse.com/tott2016 and get started. If you’d prefer a paper mail-in ballot, contact Suzi Smith at (517) 999-6704 or suzi@lansingcitypulse.com.

Making the Final Five means a lot to local businesses, people and places, but true Top of the Town glory awaits for a select few. Go cast your votes for your Greater Lansing favorites, and we’ll see who emerges victorious on June 1.